evaluation question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Above is a 9 frame sequence that has been screen grabbed from our opening sequence which we feel portray typical thriller conventions. 

Here are the aspects I will consider across the nine frames:

• Setting and Location
• Titles (fonts/style)
• How the characters are introduced
• Lighting
• Genre and how the opening suggests it
• Camerawork/Editing
• Costumes/Props
• The title of the film
• Story and how opening sets it up

Frame 1

The shot is a crane shot of the kingpin at his desk doing what appears to be uninteresting but this sets the scene as he is a very dangerous criminal and the best way to not be be immediately found out is to act casual and passive which is a theme with many criminal bosses in films such as the departed and the Bourne ultimatum. 

Frame 2

The second frame begins to unfold the mystery that is the Kingpin as you can tell by the concentration and annoyance in his facial expression that he is angry. The extreme close up pulls emphasis to this as he face takes up the entire shot so that nothing can steal focus. This was chosen because we thought it would be most affective to create an enigma as we have not yet been introduced to the man-on-the-run.

Frame 3

We are introduced to the first of the henchman and the one that the kingpin is shouting at. He has the look of stereotypical working class male. As the character is on his own, it suggests to the audience that he is one of the main characters. There are not other characters in the scene, therefore putting all the attention on the male, which was our intention. This further enhances the enigma of who are they trying to catch..

Frame 4

The fourth panel is a reverse shot of the second henchman 'Knuckles' who is the driver and the self titled "Hardman". This shot is used to hide his identity until he is called into action to assist in the chase. This is a convention of the thriller genre as until the point were it would be impossible certain characters' identities are hidden. 

Frame 5

This frame is of the still unknown driver to the audience. The shot shows him driving into the shot and this shows the intent of the chasers has now increased as the man-on-the-run has been spotted. the shots used for the car are all simple medium shots so that the henchman has head room when he exits the car and the car still remains part of the focus. this is similar to the shots used in 'Snatch'.

Frame 6

This frame shows a long shot of the two henchmen running after the man on the run. We chose to use this in our sequence so that we would be able to capture the chase scene in one shot and it adds prospectus as the  characters are running through a busy street in the middle of the day and there is police or people to stop them because the areas in which we shot were meant to represent the crime hit parts of the city were the police are nowhere to be seen and  the rough street people are free to do as they please.

Frame 7

This shot was of a medium long shot and shows are man on the run trying to do whatever he must to avoid capture. This shot was used so that the complete stunt could be captured and the man on the run identity still isn't clear and we chose to continue to protect it so that the enigma of the film was not given up in the early stages of the film which wold possibly ruin the narrative expectations and make the story line predictable and dated.

Frame 8

 This frame shows are henchman who have temporarily lost the man on the run . As they are running into the shot none of the rules of camera work as they centered so they do not break the rule so it seems as though they are pushing the camera along. They have enough head room and rule of thirds has been mastered in this shot. The shot allows the characters time to pursue the characters without disappearing from view. This uses the convention of thriller movies which has chase scenes where there is a hot pursuit to capture the man on the run.

 This shot has the convention of the cornered man as three henchman have the man on the run seemingly trapped and it seems as though there is nowhere for him to run to. This convention is often used used in man-on-the-run films such the Bourne supremacy were the main character Matt Damon is seemingly trapped in the hotel by the waves of armed police and he still manages to get away. This is also used in Evasion as even though the man has been surrounded he takes the unorthodox path of escape by scaling a wall and becoming out of reach for his enemies.

In Evasion, many thriller conventions are exhibited . As our sequence was a crime/man-on-the-run thriller, one convention which would be expected and was incorporated into our sequence, is a chase scene. Our chase scene through the streets is similar to many chase scenes in similar movies such as the bounre identity, and captures the audience from the start. 

The use of a gun as a prop when the henchman is pursuing the man on the run, also showed a generic convention of a crime/action thriller. One aspect which may be considered to challenge the conventions is the fact that the man on the run was identified from the very beginning of the movie, setting up the rest of the movie for a hot pursuit in throughout the movie, and over the course of days rather than weeks, as the man has already come close to being captured and clearly after the opening sequence would only have a matter of time before his pursuers find him again. This could set up a in-depth of how the man is on the run.Another way that Evasion challenges conventions is that the people chasing the man on the run were not police chasing a vigilante, as is often the case, but seemed to be a small group of young criminals chasing another young man. This adds mystery to the plot and suggests that the pursuers are criminals wanting to capture the man for other reasons than to uphold the law, but probably something more along the lines of interrogation or revenge for a past regretted incident. Evasion cleverly uses all the conventions expected in an action/ man-on-the-run thriller.